Roke Develops Biologically-Inspired Threat Monitoring System for Autonomous Vehicles

ROMSEY, England, July 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Roke Manor Research Ltd (Roke), a Chemring Group company, has developed the world's first threat monitoring system for autonomous vehicles that emulates a mammal's conditioned fear-response mechanism. The STARTLE system uses a combination of artificial neural network and diagnostic expert systems to continually monitor and assess potential threats.

STARTLE provides enhanced situational awareness and early threat warning to both the autonomous vehicle and to its remote operator(s). Making use of existing hardware, STARTLE intelligently processes information from multiple on-board sensors, cueing systems to assess and confirm potential threats to the vehicle.

Mike Hook, Principal Consultant at Roke, said: "STARTLE reduces operator workload and improves vehicle efficiency on the ground by helping remote operators to respond effectively in complex mission environments. Operators do not want to be distracted from their mission and the time it takes them to turn their attention to a possible threat could be too slow to save the vehicle.

"STARTLE delivers local autonomy to a vehicle by providing a mechanism for machine situation awareness to efficiently detect and assess potential threats. This allows vehicle sensing and processing resources to be devoted to the assigned task, but if a threat is detected it will cue the other systems to deal with it swiftly before continuing its mission. These vital seconds could be the difference between mission failure and success."

About Roke http://www.roke.co.uk

Roke, based in Romsey, Hampshire, is the principal electronics research and development centre of Chemring Group Plc. Founded in 1956, Roke is one of the UK's leading suppliers of innovative solutions and contract R&D, pioneering developments in electronic sensors, networks and communications technology. It employs 450 staff and has over 430 patents to its name.

About Chemring http://www.chemring.co.uk

• Chemring is a manufacturing business with facilities in eight countries selling high technology electronics and energetic products to over eighty countries.
• The Company has a diverse portfolio of products protecting military people and platforms against a constantly changing threat.
• Operating in high margin, niche markets with short product development timescales, Chemring has the agility to rapidly react to urgent customer needs.
• Chemring adopts a balanced strategy of organic growth and small bolt-on acquisitions, and maintains balanced geographic and market profiles, with a growing presence in non-NATO countries.
• Strong R&D investment for new products and improvements in technology continually allow Chemring to expand its addressable markets.